Study Desk

I have heard a message from Yahweh, and a messenger has been sent among the nations. "Gather and come against her, and rise for the battle."

"For look, I will make you small among the nations, despised by the humankind.

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream. So I will chase him away hurriedly from it. And whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like me, and who can summon me? And who is this, the shepherd who can stand before me?"

Concerning Damascus: "Hamath and Arpad are ashamed, for they have heard bad news; they melt. There is concern in the sea. It is not able to keep quiet.

They will take their tents, and their flocks, their tent curtains, and all their equipment, and their camels they will carry away for themselves, and they will call to them, ‘Terror is from all around.'

Flee! Wander far away! Get down low! O inhabitants of Hazor," declares Yahweh. "For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has planned a plan against you. And he has schemed a scheme against you.

Rise up, go up against a nation which is at ease, living securely," declares Yahweh. "There are no gates and there are no bars for them, they dwell alone.

For a nation will come up against her from the north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they all will wander off. They will go away.

For look, I am going to stir up, and I am going to bring against Babylon a contingent of great nations from the land of the north. And they will draw up a battle formation against her, from there she will be captured. Their arrows are like a warrior who has achieved success, he does not return without success.

Draw up a battle formation at Babylon all around, all those who bend the bow, shoot at her. You must not spare arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.

Raise a war cry against her on all sides. She has surrendered. Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done to others, so do to her.

In those days and at that time," declares Yahweh, "the guilt of Israel will be sought, but there is none, and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I left behind.

I laid a bird snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon. But you yourself did not know. You were discovered and seized, because with Yahweh you measured yourself.

Yahweh has opened his armory, and he has brought out the weapons of his wrath, for it is a word for my Lord Yahweh of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

Come against her from the end, open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps and destroy her. Let there be no remnant for her.

Massacre all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughtering. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.

There is the sound of fugitives and survivors from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance for his temple.

Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, so do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.

"Look, I am against you, O arrogant one," declares Lord Yahweh of hosts, "for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah likewise, for all their captors have seized them, they refuse to let them go free.